A warm sunny morning in late April 1995, atop Peak Chair at Whistler. I was waiting for my ski pals to finish zipping and buckling, when a beautiful woman skied by. Unattended.

In my late 30’s I was notoriously single and had been searching/dating furiously for years. Knowing that I couldn’t have everything I wanted in a mate, I had long prior discarded the idea that she would need to be a skier. There are many other more important characteristics. And because the male-to-female ratio of skiing is so bad I gave up expecting to find available women that way.

My three friends weren’t ready yet, so I yelled “Cherchez la femme!”* and skied after her.

She had gone down a cat road that runs behind a series of peaks heading to the remote Symphony Bowl. I caught up with her, and skiing along side asked, “Shouldn’t we be dropping a trail of bread crumbs, so we can find our way back?”

I don’t remember what her brief response was. I looked over my shoulder and my friends weren’t coming yet. I didn’t know what to say next, so I stopped to wait for them.

Shortly they came into view and I took off again, but couldn’t find her. Shit! I let her get away.

Lets see… she was wearing a black top with hot pink pants. And that day I was wearing a hot pink top with black pants.**

I kept my eye out for her all day, but Whistler is a big area.

Hours later, at about 3pm, I was in Peak Chair’s singles line, and there she was behind me.***

This time I would not be at a loss for words. “If I stood on my head, we’d match.” I was like a fellow in estrus.**** We chatted over my shoulder a little, but, being the singles line, we couldn’t ride up together.

At the top I asked if she could join us. She said no, she was late catching her ride back to Seattle and had to bolt for the bottom. “You’re from Seattle? So am I.”

I handed her my card, she said her name, and g’bye. That quick.

When I got home a few days later I found a message from her on my answering machine. Finally we got to have our first real conversation on the phone that evening. And the next. And the next…

****************************

Months later, after we were in love and had moved in together, we reminisced about our meeting. She recollected that my first line had been something about croutons.

Croutons? She misremembered ‘bread crumbs’ as ‘croutons’? She obviously didn’t know the story of Hansel and Gretel.

So I decided to get a book of fairy tales for us to share aloud at bedtime. Grimm’s Fairytales. The real ones.*****

We abandoned the book after a couple of nights, but I did get a tee shirt out of this. When meeting her dad for the first time I had one made for the occasion. But I consider the shirt good for all occasions, now and forever.

LONG ago took girlfriend and I skipped school and went skiing at Monarch Pass.It was a glorious day filled with sunshine, fresh snow and very few people. Riding up the chair in a rather secluded area I decided to put my hands somewhere inviting but inappropriate. She invitingly put her arm around me and ........

PUSHED ME OUT OF THE CHAIR.

It actually ended quite well. It happened in a roped off area of bottomless untracked snow. Thanks for the memory Callie.

The meeting of my true love is more vague, other than it seemed like this was a guy with whom I had a lot in common.
I was actually going through some drama in my life that rivaled a Maury Povich show, but that was left behind in 2010 and a new chapter was beginning.
6 years after Phil and I met face to face it was obvious that we rowed the same direction and we had the best wedding ceremony EVER!
Many of you were in attendance.

Its been a wonderful ride so far. Can't wait to see what's next.

Point your skis where you want to go.
If that doesn't work, go where they're pointed.
Bob Barnes
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Back in 2001 I was working with a woman that I was attracted to. I worked in a school and she coordinated the ski bus for our building, so I knew she skied. I decided to ask her out and I had a line on concert tickets, but when I asked her she said that she didn't want to go on a date with me, but she would go skiing! To me that was a better date than any concert could be, so we went. And we're still together.

And, when I get that inevitable question from my sweetie: "Dear, how much do you love me?". I sometimes reply: "Enough to sell my favorite skis, just so I can be with you". That line used to work pretty good. 40+ years later, not so much. ;^)

And, when I get that inevitable question from my sweetie: "Dear, how much do you love me?". I sometimes reply: "Enough to sell my favorite skis, just so I can be with you". That line used to work pretty good. 40+ years later, not so much. ;^)

A novice skier, I headed to Okemo to get a lesson before there was enough snow at Berkshire East. Something was weird about the bindings (or, more likely, the skier) so I headed to the shop for advice. The plan was to test the bindings, and - you know this - the guy in the shop has to ask this 60-something her age, height, and weight! He was so experienced and adept at this that it was actually charming.

A week or two later, he resurrected my daughter's snowboard after 10 years in the attic. We chatted again. He showed up in the morning asking to ski with me during her lesson. I invited him for dinner at the inn.

I was quite determined to only date skiers. I lived in San Diego ... so... I planned singles ski trips to Utah- at my church. Bob signed up for the first trip. We became friends and made many more skiing friends. A year later, we started dating and he proposed on a ski trip 6 months after that.